Speakers

Luca Zanella, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Systems Biology at Columbia University, working under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Califano.

His research lies at the intersection of systems biology, computer science, and precision medicine, focusing on the development and application of network-based computational tools to decipher tumor heterogeneity and cell signaling using single-cell RNA-seq data. Specifically, his research goals are directed towards understanding the transcriptional regulatory programs driving plasticity in gliomas and the elucidation of drug resistance mechanisms in cancer.

Luca earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Padova, Italy, where he studied the role of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles in cancer dissemination. In addition to research, Luca serves as the Director of the Single Cell Analysis Boot Camp at Columbia University, an intensive course on computational methods for scRNA-seq data analysis.